Littlechild elected new AFN regional chief

Willie Littlechild pulled away from Tall Cree First Nation Chief Bernie Meneen on the fourth and final ballot on Oct. 6 and was elected Alberta's Assembly of First Nations (AFN) regional chief.
Incumbent Jason Goodstriker finished third.

After the chiefs had made the trip down the hall to vote in the Lake Bonavista room at the Deerfoot Inn & Casino for the third ballot, each of the three treaty groups in the province had a candidate left in the race: Littlechild is from the Treaty 6 territory, Meneen is from Treaty 8 and Goodstriker is a member of the Blood Tribe in Treaty 7.

Three other candidates had been dropped in earlier ballots: Tsuu T'ina Nation councillor Travis Meguinis, Percy Potts, a former vice-president of the Indian Association of Alberta, and Glen Youngchief, a former councillor on the Kehewin Cree Nation council.

The third ballot results-Littlechild 18 votes, Meneen 17 and Goodstriker seven- eliminated the incumbent and made it showdown between the Treaty 6 and Treaty 8 candidates.

Littlechild attracted Goodstriker's delegates and a couple of others as he prevailed 27-15 in the final ballot.

The fact that Littlechild scored a decisive win in the final ballot was a great relief to University of Lethbridge Professor Leroy Littlebear, who served as chief electoral officer. He informed the delegates, as they were preparing to vote for what turned out to be the final time, that he would be required to toss a coin to settle things should the final ballot result in a tie.

"That's what the rules say," he said, shaking his head.

After being formally eliminated, Goodstriker pointed out that he was young and had plenty of time to gain experience and return to the national political arena.

"I just turned 34 last week," he told Sweetgrass.

He acknowledged that the political high wire act sometimes required of Alberta regional chiefs played a role in his defeat. He angered many Alberta chiefs when he showed solidarity with the national chief and national executive at a meeting in Vancouver in the spring of 2005. Alberta's delegation in Vancouver for a special AFN assembly wanted to take a resolution approving the national executive's approach to self-government negotiations back to Alberta for ratification. The national chief and his staff wanted the resolution passed immediately so that plans for the Kelowna first ministers meeting could proceed. Alberta eventually abstained from the vote on the resolution, which was adopted, but many chiefs were offended when their request that they be allowed time to follow their regional protocols was not granted.

Littlechild, who was asked to run for national chief last July but chose not to, will be expected to take the treaty rights perspective to Ottawa when he attends his first national executive meeting. Chiefs from the number treaty areas all across the Prairies have been critical of National Chief Phil Fontaine's approach to treaty rights, saying he favors negotiating deals that don't force the government to admit an obligation to provide funding and services.

Littlechild, a strong proponent of the treaty approach at the international level for many years, will be expected to push for a more rights-oriented approach at the national level.

Shortly after his election, Littlechild told Sweetgrass that he will look to build relationships with his fellow national executive members.

"I want to, first of all, mainstream the treaty issues of Treaty 6, 7 and 8," he said, taking their issues off the back burner on the national stage.

"I think there's a situation here where treaty actually presents a solution and not a problem. It's a foundation for relationships. When you go back to the historic agreements of the initial treaties, they were agreements to form and share relations with each other. It wasn't to create a problem. So I think that if you take it from a positive perspective that treaties are a solution, then I think the challenge should be lessened."

But he will push for a stronger emphasis on treaties.

"Yes, certainly I think that's one of my own personal goals to do that," he said. "I want to mainstream treaty as a solution both in the province and nationally."

Now that he has been elected, Littlechild said he will not wait for the next executive meeting to get in touch with the national chief and other regional chiefs.

"I, of course, will take the first step in terms of extending the hand of friendship there and in the sense of opening positive relationships. And I want to do that with both the provincial and federal government as well," he said.